Young learners’ motivation for learning English

Abstract

As English has emerged to be a global lingua franca, the language has been taught to increasingly younger language learners as a second language (L2). Despite a rapidly growing number of young L2 learners around the world, the motivational process underlying their language learning deserves close attention since motivation is usually believed to be one of the key factors predicting L2 learners’ language learning achievements. In this chapter, we present a critical overview of existing research on young L2 learners’ motivation. Our review reveals that young L2 learners’ motivation is dynamic and mediated by multiple factors including parents’ socioeconomic status (SES) and their involvement in their children’s L2 learning, as well as the teacher and teaching-related factors. We also propose fine-tuning classroom instructions by considering the factors that mediate young L2 learners’ motivation. By undertaking these efforts, this chapter may contribute to the theoretical development of young L2 learners’ motivation for future research and inform practitioners’ pedagogical efforts to enhance it.